TICK-TOCK

02.08.12

Greece Fails to Agree on Bailout

Kostas Tsironis / AP Photos

Time is running out. After more than seven hours of talks, Greece’s coalition government failed to agree to demands from international creditors for cuts to state and private pensions. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met with the “troika” of Greece’s creditors—the EU, IMF, and European Central Bank—to try to secure a new bailout package to save the country from default. According to reports, talks broke down over proposed pension cuts, as Papademos’s office released a statement saying the leaders “agreed on all points except one.” Earlier in the day, the troika had agreed on draft proposals with the prime minister. Sources say Greece is under tremendous pressure to agree to a deal before EU finance ministers meet to discuss the bailout on Thursday.